USA > Ohio > Auglaize County > History of western Ohio and Auglaize County, with illustrations and biographical sketches of pioneers and prominent public men > Part 60
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The first religious society of the village was organized by Rev. James B. Finley at the house of Charles Lusk, with twelve members in 1835. Charles Lusk was appointed leader of this «class, and its meetings were conducted at his house for an indefi- nite period. During this time this class was one of several organ- ized along a line extending into Allen county. Revs. J. B. Fin- ley and John Alexander were the pioneers in the work of organi- zation. "In 1835, Revs. David Burns and Wesley J. Wells were assigned to this field."
"The Christians have an old organization in St. Johns, which is among the very first in this territory. They have a very com- fortable frame house of worship."
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GUYER VILLAGE.
Guyer was regularly laid out by George Geyer in 1893, and occupies a part of the farm that he entered in 1840. Soon after the construction of the Ohio Southern railroad a store and ware- house were erected which have done a thriving business since that time. The village is located in the midst of a rich agricul- tural region. The business is confined to the supply of the sur- rounding country with the most necessary articles of trade.
The business of the town is represented by two quite respect- able dry goods stores, one hotel, two saloons, one grain elevator, one stave mill and saw-mill, and one agricultural implement store.
SANTA FE.
This village is located in section twenty-five on the line between Logan and Auglaize counties. The place has not assumed very large proportions, and its business is mainly local, being confined to the trade of the immediate neighborhood.
Its business is confined to two dry goods stores, one grocery store, one blacksmith shop, and one hotel. There are two churches, one school building and one physician. The town so far as improvements in the way of new buildings is concerned, · is at a stand still. The population in 1900 was about one hun- dred and fifty.
GUTMAN.
Gutman Station on the Toledo and Ohio Central railroad, is a place of commercial importance, near the center of the town- ship. A dry goods store owned by John N. Gutman and his mother, Mrs. Mary E. Gutman, is largely patronized by the sur- rounding country. The Gutman brothers also buy grain, and their new elevator is one of the best on the line of the T. and O. C. railroad.
BIOCRAP HICAL.
WILLIAM BITLER was born near Reading, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1807. His parents moved to Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, in 1812. He married Miss Rebecca Snyder, Feb- ruary 27, 1828, and came to Franklin county, Ohio, January 23, 1832. Two years later he came to this county, and settled at St. Johns. His wife died August 14th, 1857, and he remarried Feb- ruary 9th, 1865, marrying Rosa A. Bechdolt.
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He was mail agent in this and Logan counties from 1847 to 1872. The exposure incident to mail carrying in a new coun- try unprovided with roads told fearfully upon his health, as he contracted rheumatism in a violent form, from which he was confined to his bed for a period of three years. In 1869 he erected the "Bitler House," in St. Johns, which was a popular hotel for many years. Mr. Bitler's family by his first wife con- sisted of three sons and six daughters, named Christian, Arthur, Samuel, Mary, Hannah, Lucy A., Elmira, Elizabeth, and Mahala ; by his sceond wife one stepson, E. W. Parker, and two daugh- ters, Aurora Belle and Dora May.
Mr. Bitler died at St. Johns, July 13, 1889.
JAMES H. COLEMAN was born in Kentucky, January 14th, 1792. When he was fourteen months old his parents moved to Warren county, Ohio. He had a distinct recollection of the great "Peace Treaty made at Greenville." His family, like many. other pioneer families, moved about once every ten years. When James attained the age of twenty-two years he moved to Shelby county, and a few years later moved to Logan county.
In May, 1833, he entered two hundred and seventy-three acres of land in section six in Clay township. In making his selections of lands, attention was given to the good natural drain- age of them, a precaution that redounded to his benefit in after years. Like some of the other early pioneers, he and his family resided in an Indian cabin, until an acre of timbered land was. cleared and a house erected on his farm.
The first township election was held at his cabin, December 20th, 1834, at which election he was elected fence viewer.
Mr. Coleman was the first Justice of the Peace elected in the township, which office he held for eighteen years. In 1834 he was elected commissioner of Allen county, receiving the unani- mous vote of his township. This is the only case of unanimity at an election in the township.
Mr. Coleman died April 2nd, 1883.
WILLIAM BUSH, one of the early pioneers of the township, was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, January 2nd, 1822. His parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Bush, came to Ohio in 1824,- descending the Ohio river on a raft made of logs, landing at
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Cincinnati, where they resided a short time before taking up their residence in Butler county. During the time that the fam- ily resided in that county he served an apprenticeship under a wagon maker. Mr. Bush remained at home until August 15th, 1834, when he purchased a farm in the northeast portion of Pusheta township. A few years later he moved to St. Johns where he has since resided. In 1853 he married Miss Margaret Neil. Of this union ten children have been born, eight of whom are living: Henrietta, Catherine E., Marion S., William E., Charles W., Irena B., Everett E., and Icy M. Mr. Bush served six years as county commissioner, six years as township clerk, and has been justice of the peace of the township for twenty- eight years.
Mr. Bush is of an unassuming nature, never seeking noto- riety, and never thrusting his opinions upon others. Unostenta- tious in his private life, and courteous in his administration of public affairs, he has always had hosts of friends.
AMOS COPELAND was born August 10th, 1816, in Green county, Ohio, and was twenty years of age when his parents moved to Clay township. The family located in section six, and occupied a cabin, formerly the residence of Du Chien, son-in-law of the chief Blackhoof. Amos remained under the parental roof until he was twenty-three years old, when he established a home of his own. November 23, 1839, he was married to Miss Mary J. Layton. Of this marriage nine children were born, of whom six are living: George, who married Eva Graham; Julia, Mrs. Samuel Brackney; William N., who married Ellen Robinson ; Elza B., who married Anna Herring; Miriam, the wife of Cas- per N. Chenoweth; Scott W., who married Emma Chambers. Two sons, John and George, served in the Civil War, the latter being killed in the battle of Resaca.
After his marriage, our subject located on the northeast quarter of section three, Clay township, on which a log cabin was situated. Here he resided for six years, when he exchanged the tract for an unimproved piece of land in section four. He operated this farm for twenty-four years, during which time he cleared over one hundred acres and added two hundred acres to his original purchase. In the fall of 1875 he moved to St.
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Johns where he resided until his death, which occurred July 25th, 1898.
WILLIAM LUSK, son of Charles and Anna Lusk, was born in Virginia July 14th, 1817, and when about eighteen years of age came with his parents to this county. He had very limited edu- cational opportunities in the old State, and here it fell to his lot to work rather than attend school. The father was a strict temperance man, and the son became likewise an advocate of sobriety, and, notwithstanding the influences by which he was surrounded during his youth when liquor was a factor in the fields, he is able to say that he has never used intoxicating liquor during his whole life. In 1833, he united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1859 was licensed as a local minister, which relation he sustained until the present time. From 1839 to 1845 he lived in Missouri, but returned to Auglaize county at the latter date, where he has since resided. He owns a large tract of land, west of St. Johns, on which he has built for him- self an elegant residence. The upright life that he has lived commands the respect of all who know him.
ASA MARTIN was born in Clinton county, Ohio, January 15th, 1822. In 1838 he settled in Clay township three and a half miles south of St. Johns with his father in what was then a swamp. February 22nd, 1844, he was married to Hannah Cole- man, who bore him fifteen children, eleven of whom are still living. After his father died in 1851 he bought out the other heirs' interests in his father's farm, cleared it up and improved the land until it was one of the most productive farms in the county.
Throughout his life he was an upright, straightforward and conscientious Christian man and for many years was a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was the oldest and last survivor of a family of six children. He was a highly respected and often honored citizen in his community, and no man in the county stood higher in the estimation of his fellow men. He filled various offices of trust in his township and at the time of his death was serving his second term as county infirmary director, the duties of which position he faithfully and conscien- tiously performed.
He died December 27th, 1891.
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.. ' JOHN ROGERS was born in Orange county, New York, Octo- 2. ber 20th, 1800. His parents subsequently moved to Sussex county, New Jersey, and finally to Licking county, Ohio, in 1814. In 1821 he went to Richland county, Ohio, and shortly afterward married Miss Mary Hadley of Mt. Vernon. In the autumn of 1833 he came to Auglaize county and settled on the site of the Blackhoof village, where he became one of the two original founders of St. Johns. Two years later Clay township was organized, and at the first election he was chosen trustee. of the township. He afterwards held the office of justice of the peace. His wife died about 1841, and ten years later he married Mrs. Nancy Bechdolt. To the development of the community he con- tributed his full share; and having attained his eightieth year, he laid down the burden of cares and years, April 30, 1880, and embraced the rest which awaits even the restless. He was thus closely associated with the village and township, having assisted in the founding of both, and continued identified with them dur- ing a period of nearly half a century. R. SUTTON.
GOSHEN TOWNSHIP.
The history of the organization of Goshen township is recorded in the Commissioners' journal of Allen county, dated December 5th, 1836, and reads as follows: "Bazle Day then pre- sented a petition for a new township to be struck off of Wayne township, beginning at the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of section thirty (30), in Town number five (5), south of range number eight (8) east, thence east to the county line between Allen and Hardin counties, thence south to Logan county line, thence west with said line to the northwest corner of Logan county, thence south to the northeast corner of Shelby county, thence west to the southwest corner of section thirty-one, in Town six (6) south of Range number eight (8) east, thence north to the place of beginning. The Commissioners being satisfied that legal notice had been given for the alteration, or for a new town- ship to be struck off, granted the same petition, and the bounds of township to be as described in the petition, and said town- ship to be designated and known by number sixteen (16), named Goshen. And that the electors of said township hold an election
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for township officers at Eli E. Corson's on Saturday the 17th of December."
"Advertisements written and sent by Basle Day."
Goshen township is six miles in length from east to west, and three and a half miles in width. Its area, therefore, is twenty-one square miles. It is only a few years since this town- ship, like the other contiguous territory, was the habitation of Indians and wild animals. The numerous mounds, inclosures and curiously formed earth-works that still remain, are evidences of its former Indian occupation. The great landed estates in the prairie are unsurpassed in picturesque beauty and fertility by any other locality in northern Ohio. The annual yield of Indian corn raised on the prairie is about one hundred and fifty thousand bushels, of wheat, twenty-five thousand bushels, and proportionally large quantities of oats, broom-corn, and potatoes.
The great prairie and its drainage streams, in a former geo- logic period, formed one of the five gaps in the dividing ridge of Ohio, through which the waters of the glacial sea flowed to the south. The great volume of water that flowed through the gap carried vast numbers of icebergs, loaded with great quantities of debris, which was deposited as the bergs melted, forming gravel ridges along the line of the ocean current. There are evi- dences that there were ice gorges at the opening of the gap on the north, and the bergs scraped and tore up the Erie clay at the bottom of the channel through the prairie. This prairie is also the source of two important rivers of the state, the Scioto and the Great Miami. The Scioto drains the greater part of the east prairie ; while Muchinippi creek, head of the Miami, has been deepened and widened until it resembles a small river, and drains the west prairie and adjacent territory.
The soil in the eastern and southern portions of the town- ship is a black, swampy loam. In the northern part it occasion- ally becomes clayey.
ORIGINAL LAND ENTRIES.
In the following list of land entries in Goshen township the original claimants numbered from one to nineteen in the Vir- ginia Military Lands, are not given, as the proper data could not be obtained in time for the publication of this work. The total area of these lands is 2,526.11 acres.
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1830. Daniel Black, Section 34.
1831. Daniel Black, Section 34. 1832. Basle Day, Sec. 33. Washington Buffenbarger, Sec. 34.
James Abernathy, Sec. 25. Simon Morecraft, Sec. 33. Samuel Morecraft, Sec. 3.
John Burgett, Sec. 27. Sampson Buffenbarger, Sec. 32. Washington Buffenbarger, Sec. 33. Simonton Buffenbarger, Sec. 34. Sampson Buffenbarger, Sec. 4. Samuel Buffenbarger, Sec. 5.
1833.
Alexander Templeton, Sec. 25. Eli E. Corson, Sec. 33 Basle Day, Sec. 33. James Denton, Sec. 3. Jacob Weaver, Sec. 4. Alanson Earl, Sec. 8.
Amos Wittiam, Sec. 27. Charles Skillings, Sec. 3. Solomon Hanks, Sec. 4. Solomon Hanks, Sec. 8.
Simonton Buffenbarger, Sec. 27. Simon Morecroft, Sec. 28.
David Turner, Sec. 32. John Gilroy, Sec. 32.
Simon Morecraft, Sec. 33. Henry Reaburn, Sec. 36. Simonton Buffenbarger, Sec. 4. Solomon Buffenbarger, Sec. 7. George Murray, Sec. 7. George Murray, Sec. 8.
Robert McKnight, Sec. 9.
1834.
John Gilroy, Sec. 29. Joseph Cline, Sec. 4. Wm. Coddington, Sec. 5.
1835. Daniel Black, Sec. 27. Sampson Buffenbarger, Sec. 28. Silas Tolman, Sec. 32. Samuel Buffenbarger, Sec. 33. Daniel Black, Sec. 35. Samuel Morecraft, Sec. 3. Wm. Mclaughlin, Sec. 6. Benjamin Boggers, Sec. 7. Samuel Williams, Sec. 8.
Robert Adair, Sec. 9.
Robert McKnight, Sec. 10.
Wm. Black, Sec. 27. John Zehner, Sec. 30. Robert Lee Gilmore Means, Sec. 30. R. L. G. Means, Sec. 31. John W. Thomas, Sec. 31. Samuel Morecraft, Sec. 3. Vincent Reames, Sec. 3. Thomas Patterson, Sec. 4. James Dale Trevitt, Sec. 4. John Dunan, Sec. 5.
1836. Jacob Harrod, Sec. 30. Joseph Brown, Sec. 30. Simon Morecraft, Sec. 29. Lyman North, Sec. 31. Joseph Kline, Sec. 32. William Jett, Sec. 3. Eli Eldridge, Sec. 4. Sampson Buffenbarger, Sec. 4. Joseph Cline, Sec. 5. Thoams Patterson, Sec. 5.
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John McClean, Sec. 6. Geo. P. Williams, Sec. 8.
Thomas Patterson, Sec. 8. Nathaniel Hunter, Sec. 9.
Samuel Moore, Sec. 9. Saul Schaul, Sec. 10. David Hull, Sec. 11.
Jacob Mix, Sec. 31. Asa Gray; Sec. 6. Samuel Moore, Sec. 10.
Asa Gray, Sec. 6. Geo. P. Williams, Sec. 7. Samuel Watson, Sec. 8. John Kindle, Sec. 9. Richard G. Moore, Sec. 10. Rezin Franks, Sec. 10. « John W. Thomas, Sec. 31. John Starett, Sec. 3. John Kindle, Sec. 9. Lemuel Schaul, Sec. 10.
Nicholas Marz, Sec. 2. Henry King, Sec. 3.
Gilbert Hurley, Sec. 10.
Sarah Smith, Sec. 10. William Marquis, Sec. 11.
1838. John Connelly, Sec. 3. Ephraim Caldwell, Sec. 6. Wm. Marquis, Sec. 10. Henry King, Sec. 10. Christian Smith, Sec. 9.
Winslow Robinson, Sec. 26.
Joseph Hipple, Sec. 31.
Winslow Robinson, Sec. 35.
1839. James Cramer, Sec. 29. James Cramer, Sec. 32 ..
1847. David Gohrmley, Sec. 11.
1851. Byram Baldwin, Sec. 32.
1852.
R. L. G. Means, Secs. 31 and 7.
Philip Smith, Sec. 10.
TOWNSHIP OFFICERS.
The following is a list of the township officers as near as can be ascertained from the county records. Owing to the want of courtesy of the township clerk, H. V. Wagstaff, we were denied access to the township records, the only proper source of information on the subject.
Justices of the Peace.
1853. Josiah Bidwell.
1874. L. Combs.
1856. Daniel Delzell. 1875. C. N. Buff.
1862. L. O. Alylworth. 1877. H. H. Burden.
1864. A. Mix.
1884. G. S. Gary.
1867. H. M. Cline.
1887-92. G. R. Gary.
1871. Nathan Martin. 1892-1903. J. F. Van Horn.
1873. H. M. Cline.
1903. W. H. H. Burden.
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Clerks.
1878. Lewis Lindermuth.
1885. Mack Hull.
1879. E. H. Ewing.
1892. H. S. Chapman.
1880. J. S. Earl.
1893. A. Hamilton.
1882. A. D. Brubaker.
1902. H. V. Wagstaff.
Treasurers.
1878. Orin North.
1885. Orin North.
1879. Orin North.
1892. Orin North.
1880. Orin North.
1893. Orin North.
1882. Orin North.
1902. J. R. Cordrey.
NEW HAMPSHIRE VILLAGE.
The center of population of Goshen township is New Hamp- shire, a neat village and handsomely located. No village in the county has attended more earnestly to the cause of education than the citizens of New Hampshire and the community immediately surrounding it. About fourteen years ago a township high school was erected in the village, which is attended by the higher grade of pupils from the country district schools.
The village was laid out by John Kindle in 1836, and occu- pies the northwest quarter of section four. The original plat contained sixteen acres. One addition by the original proprietor has been made since that time. The first store was established by Hiram North, and Orin North, his brother. They erected the first steam mill. Later J. J. Hutchinson established a general store. The village at the present time has two hotels, two stores, two blacksmith shops, one grocery store, a grist-mill and a saw- mill, an M. E. Church, and a Baptist Church.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
MARTIN V. B. BUFFENBARGER was born in Madison town- ship, Clark county, Ohio, March 29th, 1840, being a son of Sam- uel and Eliza Ann Buffenbarger. On New Year day, 1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Harpole, and the fol- lowing month removed to Auglaize county, settling in section thirty-four, Goshen township. Of this marriage eleven children have been born: Harpole, Irena, Elihu, Cenetta, Owen, John, Iola (deceased), Merta, Mary, Martin H., and Charles. Mr. Buffenbarger remained where he first settled until 1872, when he built a residence on his farm in section four, where he now resides. He has held many positions of trust in his township and
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in the county, and his high sense of honor and vigorous efforts in behalf of those whom he served has made him a reputation to be desired by any man. He was elected township trustee in 1876, for three years, and reëlected for five successive terms. In 1893 he was appointed by the Commissioners a member of the Board of Infirmary Directors, to fill the unexpired term of Asa Martin, Sr., and served one year. He was then elected by the people, and served in that capacity for four years, with the same fidelity and honesty that has characterized his every action, both public and private. Mr. Buffenbarger has always been a most successful farmer and stock raiser.
(From John B. Walsh's biographical sketches.)
ALANSON EARL was born in Canada in 1813, and was brought to the United States the same year. Two years later the family moved to Logan county, and in 1817, they again moved to Clark county where they resided until 1832. In that year they came to Allen now Auglaize county. At the age of twenty years, Mr. Earl had accumulated fifty dollars with which he entered forty acres of land in section eight, Goshen township. He immediately erected a log cabin on his land, and in the fall of 1833, he married Miss Rachel Day; of this union eight chil- dren were born, of whom six are still living. The entire country was a wilderness at that time. When Mr. Earl went to Wapa- koneta to enter his land, he started from where Mr. Elsworth lived on the section line where the Waynesfield and Wapakoneta pike is now located. Then followed the section line by a blaze on the trees to where he struck the Lima and Wapakoneta road, there not being a house in the neighborhood. Mr. Earl resided on the land that he entered in 1833, until his death, which occurred in 1867.
JUDGE JOHN McLEAN was born in Bedford county, Penn- sylvania, in 1809. His father was a farmer, in which business young McLean was reared. His chances for obtaining an edu- cation were very limited, but in after life, by patient application, he acquired a fair business education. In 1833, he went to Rich- land county, Ohio, and obtained employment, as a farm hand, near Mansfield. In 1837 he married Miss Mary Cobean, and moved immediately afterward to Goshen township, Allen, now
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· Auglaize county. They raised a family of four children, John G., Melissa, Robert A., and Sarah E.
November 16th, 1836, Mr. McLean entered one hundred and sixty acres of land in section six, Goshen township. On this land he erected a house and other buildings, preparatory to his marriage which took place the next year. Mr. McLean resided on this farm until his death, which occurred May 5th, 1875. He was elected associate judge for the county after its organization, which position he filled until the new constitution abolished the office.
Judge McLean was of an unassuming and retired disposi- tion, attentive to his own affairs, taking little part in public mat- ters. But no man in his neighborhood was more highly respected or considered more trustworthy.
ROBERT LEE GILMORE MEANS was born in Coshocton, Ohio, in 18II, and was taken to Virginia by his uncle; his parents hav- ing died when he was two years of age. He lived with his uncle Ephraim Means in Virginia until he was eighteen years old, when the uncle with his family and ward returned to Ohio, settling in Licking county. Young Means remained with his uncle two years when the family moved to Champaign county. One year after the family settled in that county young Means began life's battle for himself. In 1833, he married Miss Sarah North. After paying the minister two dollars for performing the marriage cere- mony, "his worldly possessions only amounted to seventy-five cents, besides owing for his wedding clothes. With liabilities of about twelve or fifteen dollars, and assets seventy-five cents, he took a contract for splitting rails at thirty-three cents per hun- dred, and renting land until his debts were paid, and he had a balance of sixty-five dollars accumulated. He then borrowed forty dollars and came to Allen, now Auglaize county, and entered eighty acres of land in Goshen township in section thirty, February 9th, 1836. He immediately erected a cabin into which he moved the same spring. "He went boldly to work in clearing up a farm, and succeeded in making one of the best in the town- ship. In clearing the farm the family endured all the hardships incident to new settlements. Having commenced life with a determination to succeed, if industry, economy and fair dealing were the elements of success, Mr. Means became one of the larg-
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est land owners in the township, being the possessor of sixteen hundred acres of land at the time of his death.
Mr. and Mrs. Means were the parents of ten children, only four of whom are living: Lyman North Means, Lucy E., who married John H. Plough, Olive M., who married William Mc- Cormick, and Rebecca M.
Mr. and Mrs. Means were consistent members of the Bap- tist church. The early ministers, no matter to what denomina- tion they belonged, always found a welcome at his house, and a. cordial invitation to its hospitality.
Mr. Means died September 11th, 1885.
JASON H. MANCHESTER was born in Newton, Union county, Ohio, in 1853. The elder Manchester, his father, was a native of the "Old Bay State," and was born at Dracut in 1815. He graduated from Norwich University, Vermont. In 1842 he mar- ried Miss Rebecca Hewitt, a native of Pomfret, Vermont. In the same year the young couple moved to Frederictown, Ohio, where he engaged in merchandising until 1865, when he sold out and three years later settled on an unimproved farm of five. hundred acres. in Goshen township, Auglaize county. To the original tract he added from time to time until he was the owner of one thousand acres. After his death the estate passed into. the possession of Jason H. Manchester, the subject of this sketch.
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